Such passive aggressive announcements, we have to stan. We’re back to the phase where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have to remind everyone of their existence as soon as Prince Harry and Meghan do anything. Last Thursday, the Sussexes’ communications office announced that the Sussexes would be doing a tour of South Africa (with Archie), and that Harry would then travel alone to Malawi, Angola and Botswana. The announcement was expected, and there were also rumors that the Cambridges would be announcing a fall tour at some point soon too. Well, the Cambridges announced it alright… just as everyone was enjoying the surprise photos of Harry and Meghan at the Yankees v. Red Sox ball game in London. To be 100% fair, the baseball game seemed to be over by the time the Kensington Palace announced the Cambridges’ new upcoming tour. But also to be fair, the Cambridges announced this late on a Saturday evening just so the Sussexes wouldn’t dominate the headlines all weekend. So petty. LMAO.
As for the tour, William and Kate are going to Pakistan. The KP announcement was this: “The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will undertake an official visit to Pakistan this autumn, at the request of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.” They want you to know that they ALSO get requested by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, not just Harry and Meghan! They don’t have a timeline yet, which is pretty standard – the dates probably will be coordinated with Harry and Meghan’s tour so they’re not stepping on each other’s newscycles.
I still don’t know what possessed the Kensington Palace office to announce this little tidbit late on a Saturday evening in London OTHER than to step on the Sussexes newscycle. Super-obvious, but I prefer it this way. Let’s just have the competition out in the open, it will make both couples better working royals.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, WENN.
Nothing better than a little competition to keep you on your toes. Both couples are trying to outdo each other and we love it.
Unfortunately this competition isn’t leading to any of them to actually work more. They’re just being showier about the little bit they do deign to do.
At this point in their lives both brothers should be racking up at least 400 engagements annually (their father was doing 500-700 when he was their age). If they wanted to win this competition that’s all one of them would have to do, start behaving like an actual working royal instead of a lazy layabout.
You do understand that there is a difference between quality and quantity right? I am sure you do. You can have 1000 engagements with absolutely no impact. I would take 1 engagement with impact than 1 million engagements with minimum impact.
Case in point: Meghan and the Hubb community ladies; how many engagements you were AWARE of? 3 – 5 maybe (more were completely unknown to the public until the big reveal). That cookbook alone was more than anything any other young member of the RF did last year except for Harry. That’s work; no showing up to xxx events with no impact
Another case in point: Harry and the Invictus Games.
Launching an international event is huge, even if he did have substantial help. He’s done great job of keeping the momentum going, because it’s one thing to do it once, but it’s quite another to keep it going from country to country.
Invictus could very well keep going for decades, because unfortunately there’s never going to be a shortage of wounded soldiers in the world.
That is a far more worthy thing to do than to appear at 100s of buildings throughout the year and opening a small curtain to reveal a plaque.
I think @Julie is right, they don’t put in the work. They just shout louder. Their efforts will now go into out manoeuvring each other.
The examples that @ VS and @Harpersghost gave are poor but it’s the best there is. Meghan put together a book, which she actually probably came up with the idea for but the writing and production was done by others. Maybe there were other meetings but they certainly wouldn’t have taken up that much time. The book made some money. The hub was a good idea but then they spent more than 4x the amount the book made, of tax payers money just on their house while people from Grenfell are still homeless.
Harry has done a great thing with Invictus but Prince Charles and the Duke of Edinburgh were both full time working royals, racking up far more hours and still managed to bring to fruition The Prince’s Trust & Duke of Edinburgh Awards
@Blue Orange, not even Rome was build in one day. How long did it take for the Prince’s Trust and Duke of Edinburgh Award to become successful charities? Comparing Invictus Games and charities that have been in operation for decades is not a fair comparison. If you can tell us what exactly the Prince’s Trust and Duke of Edinburgh Award had accomplished in just 4 years compared to the Invictus Games, or what Duchess of York accomplished in her first year of marriage (I say DoY because she was the state’s wife), or even what prince Andrew’s as the spare accomplishments were at Harry’s age, then those would be fair comparisons. And what do you mean Meghan and Harry had other people work on their projects etc, did prince Charles and the Duke of Edinburgh work their charities single handedly? Didn’t they too come up with the ideas but have others do the legwork? On Kate’s most recent project, didn’t she have others design the garden but then take credit and was praised for other people’s work?
So, I’m confused about ur comments, re: the hub made money but the Sussexes used taxpayer money for their house. Would you have rather they embezzled Royal Foundation funds for Frogmore Cottage refurbishment?
The posts above ….hilarious. The “Impact Work” club versus the “Oh so regal, nailed it ” club. MOD- discount the work to equalise the score.
@Salvation – good points. Some posters have this naive idea that the Sussexes and Cambridges should be running around doling out hundred pound notes to everyone and living in a council flat. Like any business, they hire staff with the expertise to write, photograph, produce and handle PR in order to raise awareness about their causes. It doesn’t mean they’re shirking actual work, in essence they’re the CEOs of organizations and as such they develop ideas in conjunction with those who share their vision and work cooperatively to bring that vision to fruition.
@Salvation – I think you misunderstood. I’m not comparing the charities in their current format. Of course that takes time but what I am saying is that they both created these charities and put in more working hours. Of course they ALL delegate but that delegation frees up so much time for them and what are they then doing with it?
Of course I don’t expect them to embezzle that charity. That’s a ridiculous statement but you must also see that jobs are created by the Royals for the sake of looking busy and useful. The house renovations are just the easiest example because they’re most recent and not directly aimed at Meghan & Harry because, again they ALL do it. How can it be justified that Meghan creates her own project and raises somewhere in the area of £500,000 but then their house renovations of £2.4 million come from tax payers money? Scrap the Royals and their made up jobs and that entire pot could go into funding those in need. The Royals don’t seem to even be able to raise as much as they spend and unfortunately a vast amount of what they spend directs takes from those in need.
@Blue Orange, for all reasons you stated above then you should not praise one charity over another. You should not uplifting prince Charles’s while dissing Harry’s For: all said charities are run by royals Charles Phillip or Harry. They all employ others but take credit because they’re the brain. Unless you are privy to a tally of all hours ALL the royals invest in their individual charities, you don’t know how many hours Harry nor Meghan put in their charity work compated to what Charles or Philip did.
@Salvation: thank you very much…some people have no sense of perspective. You compare >30 years of work with 4 years? in the case of Meghan, it has only been a year……..my goodness
@Blue Orange is talking about the Sussexes home, I won’t reply to that absurdity. My comment was very clear in comparing what Meghan has done to any other young royal, except for Harry. I am still waiting. The Cambridges are almost useless except for having children/heirs; I would be curious to see what Eugenie and Beatrice could have done if they were working Royals.
How many people visited the the Hubb community? it took one person to actually pay attention and do something about……yet, there are some who still complain
@Blue Orange, ‘They’ did not spend 2.4 of the taxpayers money on that cottage. It was always slated to have almost that amount spent on it for repairs and to bring it to habitable standards as a historic home. H & M had no say whatsoever in deciding what or how much was spent on restoring that house.
I don’t actually see this as both couples doing it but I totally expect to see ‘both sides’ in discussion.
I really don’t think both couples are “trying to outdo each other” at all. The Cambridges know they’ve painted themselves into a corner with their faux charity work (show up, smile for the cameras, rinse, repeat) and that the Sussexes outshine them at pretty much everything because they’re actually DOING something at ground level. Ergo, they’ll go to Pakistan, be feted for a few days swanning around like Lord and Lady Muckymuck and go home. To what purpose? British rule ended after WWII so it’s not like a commonwealth visit. In fact the creation of Pakistan was never fully accepted by most British leaders so I don’t know what the point of the visit is, given that the Cambridges seem to be lacking in the kind of relationship-building talents the the Sussexes clearly have.
Lol, Jaded! Would love to see that communication where “they were requested.”
“Both couples”? No, there’s only one couple that’s trying to jockey for attention, even though we’re reminded ad nauseam that they’ll be ~future king and queen~. You would think that they would be less insecure because of their position and ranking, but alas…
Exactly!
They’re beyond transparent. The problem is that, at their core, neither of the Cambridge’s are ‘workers’. They don’t want the Sussexes to outshine them but fundamentally they just haven’t shown the want or fortitude to actually put in any work.
@Blue Orange, you didn’t mention the several million dollars the renovations on the Cambridge’s driveway cost. How much work are they required to put in to cover that? And isn’t it interesting that we’ve heard next to nothing about that?
Of course this is passive aggressive snark from the Cambridges, how often have they dropped these announcements late on a weekend when there has been positive Sussex’s news. Regardless whether or not its ‘usual’ it looks petty. Its obvs that the Sussex’s can’t have nice things, lest the Cambridges get upset.
Wanna bet all 3 Cambridge children go on this tour.
I’ll take that bet. It’s Pakistan, it’s a security nightmare; those kids won’t be within 3000 miles of it.
Scobie said that release time was pretty standard, but that just seems a little too convenient.
LOL they embargoed the news for the Sunday papers and they had zero front pages LOL they’re so pressed!
Very true, its not even anywhere near the top on their mouthpiece the Fail, who has a negative story about the Sussex’s just after a story complaining about the mess people left behind at Glastonbury.
On top of that, the reactions to their Instagram post (235k likes, 1.3k comments) are significantly more subdued that the ones for the Sussex announcement (715k likes, 7k comments), and there’s WAY less engagement than the Sussex baseball game post (760k likes, almost 6k comments).
I’m actually getting kind of obsessed with comparing their social media engagement levels.
I saw reactions from a few Cambridge fans on Twitter…it was basically surprise and poorly disguised disappointment about Pakistan being the next country to visit. A lot of “well I’m glad they’re being trusted with a visit of high importance” but also coupled with “I wasn’t expecting Pakistan”. I suppose it’s not glamorous enough to their fans, but these trips are not supposed to be about that kind of thing in the first place.
BeachDreams, that’s rich coming from Sussex fans. A good number of Sussex fans showed their racist arses when the Africa announcement came out months ago. Disgusting comments implying the continent isn’t good enough for Meghan to stay for an extended visit/tour. I bet you didn’t call that out, so don’t try and turn it all around now. Those Cambridge fans are probably white racist and xenophobic but the Sussex fans comments reactions to the Africa announcement were horribly ignorant & racist, even from POC. Yuck.
Post-colonial optics: is this trip insensitive or diplomacy?
Both.
But will we have the same energy here to talk about this? Is this trip as ill-advised?
Will, Kate and Harry attended Colonial and Natives type parties. Harry’s hideous costume meant he actually was criticized while Will and Kate (future king and queen) skated by. How will the Cambridges be able to handle this trip? We already saw William admit to not preparing for part of the India tour.
Will and Kate have a history of behaving like airheads. The best we can hope for is that they smile for the pictures and go home without blundering. And maybe Kate will have a cute outfit or two.
Maybe we’ll get another interesting photo op like the one when the Cams went to Tuvalu and were carried on thrones. /s
William did absolutely fine on his Palestine, Israel and Jordan tour, they’ll do fine in South Asia, too. I’m not really sure what you are expecting? @Olenna, Meghan & Harry should not have let the Royals on their Oceania tour bow down to them. You stop your elders halfway, it’s called respect. You don’t revel in POC bowing down to you, then give a non existent curtsy to Royals with far more status than you. You bought up a terrible optics wise W&K incident soo I did the same for M&H. Fair is fair.
Waiting to see what is the charity focus here. when Meg and Harry go the focus is all on the charities. When Bill and Kate go it’s like the future king is coming.
I am not a royal expert but why announce a tour in the dead of night London time?
Anyway I dont think they will bring the kids.
So that it will be front page for the Sunday news papers but by that time most of the papers have gone to print so they are/were aiming for the online editions which failed miserably for them.
Let’s be honest; There was NO WAY they were going to dominate the news with Meghan being out yesterday. Too much money is made out of the Sussexes, especially Meghan at the moment.
The person at KP who thought this was a great idea is an idiot. They should have waited for the Sussexes news cycle to calm down before announcing their visit; The news went unnoticed.
The Cambridges really need competent people; it is always like they don’t have creative or innovative people working for them
I mean I don’t live in the UK so I don’t know. But is a royal tour itinerary typically front page news of a Sunday paper? Nothing else is going on? Really? I’m a bit hard pressed to believe the Guardian would devote front page above the fold space to this type of announcement. Unless we’re talking about more of the tabloid-y type ones? I really don’t know enough about the UK media landscape.
@katherine: It depends on the royal but usually its only the tabloids that make these kind of stories front page. The more high brow ones may make mention of it but again it depends on the royal. The only royal that would make front page across the board for a tour is The Queen.
The sunday newspapers here tend to have mostly political stories, unless there is a big big scandal. Most of the politicians are on sunday morning TV.
TBH they’d be better off at aiming for the Saturday papers.
And what a boring story. H&M look great and have fun at a game in front of thousands cheering vs. a press release about a future trip. Snore.
The Cambridge’s press officers are silly and incompetent.
It was during the middle of the night in Pakistan, so the timing certainly wasn’t for the country hosting them either.
I guess I will just park here to see if the same folks who clutched pearls over the Sussexes going to Africa keep that same energy for this trip.
Of course they won’t. They don’t really care for the Cambridges; I have seen Cambridge fans couldn’t raise money on Twitter for PW’s birthday.
I wonder how many ‘fans’ the Cambridges really had before Meghan arrived on the scene. I might be wrong but there are some who hate Meghan who are now Cambridge fans. Meghan is the star of the RF show at the moment. I am happy she seems to use it to focus on her charity work…
I admire the work she did with the Hubb ladies and i hope she continues to focus on making an impact!
Just go look at their ig statistic Meghan’s did being 7 million follower into their account
I’m not pakistani, so i’ll leave it to those who are to comment on this trip.
Personally if this trip include photo ops with poor kids like in other royal tours (incl. the one they did in india) , i’d think exactly the same: crass and exploitative.
I agree with you Mrs. Bump. I will follow the lead of Pakistani people and their reactions to this.
I’m keeping the energy of listening to and holding space for those who have been othered and affected by colonialism and oppression.
I mean, there are folks who are African but not a citizen of any of the countries the Sussexes are going to visit on the upcoming tour that decided to speak for people from those countries / all Africans so why split hairs now?
Couldn’t agree more, @MrsBump. Life is so much better when we stay in our lanes. Now I’m gonna need everyone who isn’t South African, Malawian, Angolan or Motswana to follow your example when it comes to the Sussex tour. Being African does not entitle you (the general you) to speak on our behalf.
Signed, an actual South African
I’m glad you agree lola.
However I do reserve the right to respond back when misinformed posters refer to the important things that the sussexes have to say to African girls. Our lanes aren’t that narrow when we are all lumped into one in the western mind.
Pakistan is a different matter altogether. An indian poster on Friday posted very eloquently about her feelings of distaste on the previous W&K trip to india, her opinion on this trip to her neighbouring country would be interesting.
@Lola, but even if you are from one of the countries you mentioned, should one speak for the entire nation as if they know what the entire nation wants or needs? I mean, one might know how they feel about these “white saviors/colonialism” but, is applying ones opinion to an entire nation of millions of people staying in yr lane really?
@Salvation, please kindly point out where in my comment I claimed to speak for my entire country. How did I manage to apply my opinion to an entire nation when I haven’t even shared what it is?
MTE, bonobochick.
@ Salvation: Lola as someone who is actually on the ground has a general feel of her nation’s opinions relating to white savior complexes and the idea of royals.
The royals aren’t are “thing” to us.
Signed, an actual South African
The headline’s are awful, they’ve pretty much been about them ‘braving’ terrorist threats to ‘follow’ in the footsteps of Diana and Charles’s visit 13 years ago. Gotta get that following in the footsteps of Diana reference in to drum up interest.
Yeah. Somehow I don’t think there’ll be many reactions to this one. I already see the shifting excuses in a couple of the responses to your post.
Agree. Some of them should’ve laid low this time and kept quiet. Now, the obvious is even more obvious.
Bwahahahahahahahaha😂😂😂😂 @Bonobochick I was one of the said commenters.🙋🙋🙋 I love this your comment .❤️❤️❤️❤️👏👏👏can I marry it? 😍😍
I could not have said it any better, Bonobochick.
@BONOBOCHICK
So that you can also dismiss their concerns as you did to some of us from different African countries on that last post? Clap for yourself.
@Linda
Actually, I was pointing out the double standard of the argument that some people feel their opinion is how all Africans feel regardless of what country they’re from yet suddenly there’s a need to tip toe around how some others may feel because it’s Asia (and more obviously, the Cambridges) even though they’re all repping the Royal Family.
Also, Linda, you have no idea what I absorb nor dismiss from anyone’s comments. You are not a mind reader.
I wish Kate would get better Botox, that is all
Wha? That’s an odd thing to say. It’s *her* face.
It is her face, that is true. It is also her body to clothe as she sees fit. Her free will to decide what work she does or does not do
This, however, is a gossip site.
Her botox is a spocked abomination. She can do better than permanently surprised Vulcan
I thought this was going to generate some interesting opinions of the necessity of a trip to Pakistan and what the people of Pakistan think, or do they even care? It’s not about Kate’s complexion.
Ya, let’s make comments about Kate’s or anyone’s face for that matter.
Behaviours. Fashion. Yup. Roll!
Petty.
Well, their press communication staff announced it. Also I do feel both couples are competing against each other. It’s a pity there is nothing productive as yet.
I really don’t think the Sussexes are competing. They are just using social media better.
Nothing as productive yet !!! ? I can sure you the baseball game Meghan and Harry attended yesterday was not just a date outing for the couple. Just research what WeareInvictus does and what it means to be a charity partner or in support of. Or just watch videos of the servicemen who have been to those games or their families. Then we can talk impact.
I know; I read the nothing as productive yet and I did wonder about the OP……anyway, you addressed it better than I could
This is where the Media is full of it to me. They praise Kate and William to the high heavens, throwing Meghan and Harry under the bus but won’t put them on the front pages and if they do, it’s not consistent with their praise and being the glorious heirs they’re made out to be. The Cambridge’s aren’t money makers and the Sussexes are and that’s why they’re desperate for access. They’re not even talking about this tour but Harry, Meghan, Archie and whatever crap they make up. The papers had the African tour announcement on their front pages but not this new to Pakistan?. Who needs who is this situation? There can’t be a competition when it’s clear who the money makers are and who has the most star power.
Their tour was on the tabloids front page because it’s Archie’s first trip. It was the same with the Cambridges and George.
Meghan and Harry are click bait right now,in one way or another. It’s very simple. The whole point of this isn’t really start power. If you read their stories and the comments on the daily mail, it’s easy to see why they get clicks. They fuel the hateful comments and their stans. But it’s not going to last forever. The interest and the morbid attention,in both ways,dissipate over the years.
Leaking this info at 10pm London time was PR genius. Really showed up the Sussexes and their silly ol’ baseball game benefiting war veterans and their families. The KP press office are amateurs. I mean…who thought this was a good idea, a good look for the Cambridges? Yes, the FFQ/FFQC are going on a politically sensitive trip, but it could have waited until Monday. It looks as if they released to purposely step on the Sussexes’ news cycle, which was impossible to do because it involved MLB, Invictus and Meghan. The Cambridges look petty and inept. Not good looks.
But the Sussexes are ones on the front page of every newspapers and tv show.William and Kate scores a mediocre 200K of like .The Sussexes reached almost a million…
Did this announcement even make a dent in the news coverage?
They better be damn careful over there. There is no love of the Brits there. You must abide by all rules of modesty.
William is proud of the fact he doesn’t keep himself informed for the trips he undertaking. He laughed about never reading the notes on Vancouver Island.
It was a total non-event, hardly anyone showed up for them. I live in Victoria and couldn’t be arsed to walk 10 minutes to the Parliament buildings to witness non-history in the making.
William did a very good job in Israel and recently in New Zealand,in a way I can’t envision Harry doing.. if I’m being honest.
William played some video games and posed with a photo of Kate as a kid when he was in Israel. Yeah I guess Harry doesn’t do that when he visits countries. 😐
I think Kate’s days of lolling around on open balconies in the nude whilst giving her husband a beej are definitely over. There hasn’t been a “Marilyn moment” with her skirts flying up showing a barely there thong in ages either.
Do you know that she was photographed in a private property and that was a gross violation of privacy? Whatever she was doing,that is just your speculation.
This comment is gross,gross. Why is it even allowed in this blog?
@Jaded
What a gross statement, and you claim to be a feminist?
This is such a weird fcking comment to make about Pakistan, honestly. “They have no love of Brits there” Their PM has a degree from Oxford. One of his ex-wives is British. You can calm down with the b-grade racism, frankly. And using this trip to make a larger point about Kate’s modesty is just beyond gross. It’s sexist and insulting to literally everyone, including the Pakistani women who struggle under those strictures of modesty. Fck off with that, please.
Not to be rude but they only way the cambridges will get more attention the harry and Meghan is bring out their kids. They offer nothing else. Neither one of them have the personality or charisma.
Not to be rude but…..
Do not think even with the kids, that the Cambridges will get more attention than Harry and Meghan. Look at the coverage of the balcony at TTC. The BBC made a point of zooming only on the Cambridges and the Queen ignoring everybody else. Headlines ” Meghan is back “. Instagram for the day -SR far surpassed KP. Now when I look at the balcony photos I barely notice the Cambridges. I do not not why, but I get the feeling the Cambridges are feeling pressed. Signs – increased Meghan and Harry bashing, constant photos of the Middleton siblings and could be also something I read that they are desperately trying to find issues they can attach themselves to even as they realise that they waited too long to start working seriously.
Agree with you Celia. Through all the hype, smokescreens and clutching of pearls, it’s pretty obvious who has the work ethics. Also, if I hated someone so much, you would definitely not find me typing and thinking about them 24/7. smh
They went to Australia with Prince George, M&H tour surpassed theirs and they didn’t have a kid with them……..so Kids aren’t cutting it anymore.
It is amazing that William is the heir, he seems to be absolutely devoid of any innovative idea
Does white saviour apply the same to the Royals visits to both Africa and Pakistan?
If it doesn’t it should.
Only the Cambridges are trying to compete with a couple who gave them more visibility.
I never heard of the trooping the color in my country (not America).Once Meghan and Harry got married national tv started showing it.
Also on their social media the traffic and the engagement were mediocre before Harry and Meghan.
Instead of smearing them they should have shown more solidarity and loyalty.
But Kate and will are too used to be complimentent only for being there and not for their inexistant work.
It applies to William who called for Africa’s depopulation
Says the man whose wife is popping out babies every couple of years, in a country that is also seriously over-populated.
I believe the RF knows they have have a problem but do not know how to solve it. In the normal world, man child and childbride would be dimmed as not to have launched. Anyone familiar with the type that are in their 30s in a house bought by their parents, supported by their parents, cannot hold on to a job and have a million excuses why they cannot ? I should know. I have a relative in his early 30s, lost his mother at 15, cannot settle on any job for any length of time, family forced to build him a home and pass over income generating assets for fear of his tantrums ( all these things done at death bed urging of his grandmother who feared that he will live to terrorise his father and step mother in the future). He has also gotten a wife who does not work.
You have to be of strong character to handle Meghan and Harry’s fame if you are a William and Kate. Not prone to jealousy and pettiness which unfortunately they, particularly William, are.
The issue is William and Kate are not operating at even an average standard of operation. They are like 2 children who have to be protected at all times. Try to compare them with any royal couple in the world. Everything for them is photo ops and heavy PR, while shielding them from any accountability. Example- Order of the Garter ceremony. Missed alot of it and did not even make it for the group photographs, while the other royals in their 70s to 90s were there doing their part. Not a word from the press, although who knows ? One of them could have been indisposed.
Since they do not seem to have any work ethics, drive or ambition but are happy for their status of Future , future King and Consort, I would advise them to stick to basic, routine royalling- ribon cutting, walk abouts and giving out medals. At least nobody would expect anything much from them, they will be working ang getting the photographs for PR.
I wonder what the Queen thinks of Kate, seeing as she has a daughter like Anne, a born princess.
William’s biggest fear is another successful tour by the Susse’s. TQ and Charles must be going insane at this point
There will definitely be comparisons to Meghan and Harry’s successful tour of Australia. Count on it. A lot of the hate directed towards them picked up around this time.
I dont think TQ and Charles care that H&M get attention – I do think it bugs W&K to no end. FTR, I definitely think it might have bothered TQ and Charles years ago; I like to think they’ve had some personal growth over the years.
And that is why I think when the dates for both tours are released they will be close to each other – the Sussex tour will be first, with the Cambridges riding on the coattails of that tour. As lets face it any Sussex tour will be successful, the Cambridges have already proven they can’t pull it off. Their last 2 tours were basically free holidays with a few events thrown in.
Thinking about this tour it’s weird. Diana’s interest in travelling to Pakistan had to do with her relationship with Hasnat Khan and wanting to marry him. I don’t recall she and Charles ever going there together.
Right, and Diana was friends with Jemima Khan; they traveled together at least once, I think. But IIRC, all of Diana’s visits were after her divorce, not before. And she didn’t go with Charles. My vague understanding of Pakistan was that it’s some sort of politically made up country after WWII that Britain had a hand in creating.
I’m no expert but partition was complicated and I don’t think the Brits were particularly in favor of it at the time. Aren’t all countries politically made up though? Only difference is Pakistan is somewhat more recent a creation than say England.
It’s a surprising choice to me but maybe less so considering they’ve previously visited India. I think the British should probably just stay out of the whole region honestly, not a lot of good “optics” there given the colonial history. But does the royal family even understand this? God knows.
@KK2 does your comment apply to the rest of the Commonwealth nations? You can’t say you want the Royals to stay out of certain regions but not the others… The British messed up all of the Commonwealth countries.
You all are so mean.
The purpose of this visit is – as is everything else in the UK at the minute – post-Brexit Britain. You all may or may not choose to believe it but the country is in crisis; Brexit is driving everything – actually, at the minute, the choice of who to elect PM to negotiate the Brexit terms is driving everything. The country has to prepare for more and negotiated trading partners after not having had to do much in that area for the best part of 40 odd years and paving the way for favourable transactions is what the royals are meant to do. Both Harry’s and William’s tours are official visits – these are not personal indulgences to be filled with their pet projects. Yah, they’re dignitaries, not diplomats on the mission to negotiate trade deals; they are there to sweeten the stage, serve whatever photo-ops Her Majesty’s Government (don’t laugh) and / or the requesting government have coughed up, kissed babies, cut ribbons and set the path for career diplomats to take over.
Why Pakistan? Because the UK has just recently relaxed some fairly turgid restrictions – civil and military. British Airways has just this month resumed flights to Pakistan – albeit on a limited basis – after 10 years of suspension. More British companies are wanting to make transactional inroads in Pakistan -and that will require terms to be set up. Royal visits are one of parliament’s more innocuous ways of oiling the wheels of democracy.
Why William? Diana was a popular visitor to Pakistan even if she went mainly for her personal reasons (yeah, it wasn’t her great charitable drives that made her pitch up there – as noble as they were). One of her kids will help to tug on the old heartstrings. William – as an heir to the throne – has good cache in that department.
As Freud said – sometimes the cigar …
Thanks for that info.
I thought about the Brexit thing, but honestly, I don’t think that going to Pakistan alone would make for a very fruitful endeavour on that front. If they want to expand their trade networks among the Commonwealth, a proper South Asia tour with all the bells and whistles would be in order. I guess maybe the reasoning is that something is better than nothing, in that going to Pakistan is better than not going anywhere at all.
What I do know is that Imran Khan, the current PM of Pakistan, spent a lot of time in the UK over the years. He went to Oxford (I think?) for his degree, married/dated British women, etc. So there are some personal ties there with the British political elite on his part that could explain it (this goes for a lot of the political establishment in Pakistan, frankly).
Yeah, but diplomacy doesn’t work based on what makes sense to one in isolation. Visit to Pakistan + India / Bangladesh etc. = lit match + tinderbox. India and Pakistan/Pak & Bangladesh have a fractious relationship. Diplomatic visits linking the two have resulted in one or both visits going pear-shaped – not just from Brit dignitaries but others as well. Long history of this – best google it if you want to know the details but it is now taken as read in diplomacy 1.0 annals that it is an amateur move to put India + Pak or Pak /Bang in the same itinerary. So where else are they going to go? Afghanistan? Iran (er, no.).
I’ve already cited why Pak / why now above and am not going to repeat. It’s not just a “chance to visit” a country in SE Asia and thus extend the tour, but there have been some recent policy shifts to presage this tour. It isn’t a bad move to mark that as a singular event.
Imran’s ex-wife – Jemima Goldsmith – was a good friend of Diana and Diana visited not just Pak but the two of them multiple times (I think she even attended their wedding in Pakistan). Imran is much more liberal than the nutters who came before, the thawing of relationships likely have much to do with him being the PM and some assurances on the premise of the rule of law being restored. Time will tell if it takes hold but in the meantime, yes, there is a connection to Diana, at least. Her heir-apparent-once-removed son is a good choice to curry favours for the UK govt.
Frankly, few in the UK who even register the visit think Harry dreamed up his visit to SA and even fewer think Wills magicked up the Pak visit – let alone out of spite. So yeah, it really isn’t seen as warring brothers making symbolic tours to Pakistan to poke each other in the eye.
LSB, pretty informative…not a British citizen but my first thoughts was about brexit and who they were going to use for diplomacy. Thought the same with Harry and Meghan’s SA tour. Things might get a bit touchy there in the Commonwealth.
I wonder why the British government wants the Cambridges to go to Pakistan?
I wonder why it’s just Pakistan they’re going to, not also India or Bangladesh? Given that a country’s government is the one who initiates tours and state visits and stuff, I wonder what’s the reasoning over in Pakistan for inviting them? I’m not implying anything untoward or shady or anything on the part of their administration, I’m just genuinely curious lol.
And yeah, no comment on the timing of the announcement or anything. They could have just announced this along with the Sussex tour if you ask me. It’s hard not to view this as vindictive or a reaction to the Sussex’s tour announcement / baseball outing. The folks over at KP should have known that this is how the media is going to portray it, and taken steps to avoid that implication, but either they didn’t realize that this would be the case (which? okay) or they didn’t care, and neither points to a great deal of professionalism on their part tbh.
They went to India at the end of their last tour and its worth noting that Pakistan and India have a fractious relationship. In fact earlier this year India launched a missile into Pakistan territory. At one point Pakistan was part of India, only becoming an independent country in 1947 when the British left and partitioned India. The implementation of the partition was chaotic and violent, causing distrust and tension that continues today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_of_India
Hmm, DU, your comments about Jordan last year, were extremely ignorant ( I’ve read last years Middle East tour posts), so I don’t think you should be trying to educate others on different nations & cultures.
Agreed, Parkistan is an odd place for royals to go. Something bexit-ie maybe?
We were inundated with Prince William as the future king ignoring his father to get to his brother.
The results are duly noted, separate households, social media accounts, charitable organizations: but the reality of the mission statement remains the same – the royal family as a living symbol of a constitutional monarchy and one of its members as head of a commonwealth of nations mostly originated from the former empire.
Prince Harry has found a proper role that excites the younger members of the Commonwealth. A much necessary response to the survival of the Royal family whereby one serves based on the will of a majority of its members.
Prince William, on the other hand, should be more understanding of his role as future head based on the order of birth. So it is baffling to note that he seems in a one sided competition with his brother. To what avail?
Most requested visits are a reflection of soft power- but nevertheless power.
His position is assured, why begrudge his brother the very positive response as a job well-done?
Prince Harry’s and Meghan’s success translates into the monarchy’s success.
The expectations are different and one cannot help but ask why he is not matured enough to grasp the difference.
The royal family future will be his responsibility and he will need all the positive contributions from all its members to maintain its relevance.
No need for unhealthy competition. Grow up.